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Good Character	By : Ems Category: G through L > Labyrinth Views: 1702 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: The Labyrinth, and all the characters this implies, does NOT belong to me. I'm making no money off this fanfic.

Chapter List
- 4
- 5
Toby lay sideways over his
bed, arms crossed and legs swinging over the edge. Even shoeless, the
socked soles of his feet made a decent sized thump, thunk, thump
every time they came back to hit the wood rim of the bedframe, and he
hoped Sarah could hear it down the hall and got mad enough to come
tell him to stop. Then he could tell her just how "fair"
and stupid this bedtime was on a Friday when all the scary movies
were playing on tv. Mommy always let him stay up, Dad didn't care, so
why did Sarah get to say he couldn't on account of nightmares? She
wasn't the boss'a him!

He sniffed wetly, nose
still stuffy from the tears that had failed to move his sister.
Stupid Sarah. He wasn't a baby, and he wasn't tired. He
was angry enough that maybe, just maybe, he'd even be brave enough to
use a bad word on her when she came to check on him. Mommy wasn't
home, he'd just say Sarah was lying if she told.

Minutes passed, or maybe
half an hour, as he glowered at the ceiling and waited.

"I
hate you!" He hollared, just in case his thump-thunks weren't
loud enough after all and she had forgotten they were still fighting.
"I hate you, hate you, hate you, hate you!"

And he hated Mommy, and Dad
too, for leaving him to be babysat by Sarah on Friday. Or
ever. If had went out too, they would have let him go to Joey's
house, or paid Lili to come over, and he could stay up as late as he
wanted. His eyes started to water again, lip tucking, as he stewed
over the fact that he'd probably already missed the Goosebumps
episodes he wanted to see.

He screwed up his face and
shrieked, "DAMMIT, DAMMIT, DAMMIT! SHIT!"

Sarah
and Hoggle were in the middle of a staredown. She was on the verge of
asking just what happened to him in better detail, but not until he
stopped making that nasty face at her. He didn't.

Sarah
sighed and brought a hand up to her forehead, eyes rolling as she
opened her mouth to make brisk amends. She didn't get the chance as
Toby's tantrum found it's second wind, his foul little boy voice
seeming to fill the whole house at once.

"Shit," She
muttered, ignoring the fact that he'd accidentally gotten that potty
mouth from her moments of frustration. "Hoggle- just wait
a minute. I'll be right back...

"TOBY! Mom isn't here,
don't think I won't spank you!"

Toby scrambled off his bed,
standing small and proud with his little chest out and fists fisted
tight as he waited for Sarah to come. But then he actually heard her
bedroom door open, and her footsteps, and panicked. Grabbing up
Lancelot for protection, he tucked the bear under his arm and ducked
his head through the overhang of his blankets, getting down on all
fours and climbing under the bed.

It was inky dark under
there, more so than he expected, and he had to brave the immediate
fear of monsters. Everyone knew bed monsters didn't come out before
nine. He shoved what felt like a sock out of the way, and the
treasure box he'd made out of a shoebox rattled when he scooted to
pull his legs in too and bumped it with his knee.

It got even darker when the
blanket fell back into place, blocking the light of his room, and he
spooked again. Scuttling on his knees and elbows, he tried to turn so
he could face away from the wall and lift the blanket again. Just
enough to peek out. But the space seemed too narrow and awkward all
of a sudden, claustrophobic. Scary. Something was crowding up against
his sides, and moving, and in the span of a few seconds he started to
scream as hands grabbed at him. At first, he thought it was Sarah,
but Sarah didn't have that many hands.

"What?" A voice
wheezed by his ear when he burst into terrified tears. "What
now? Speak up-"

"Which way do you want to go?"
Another demanded.

Toby hyperventilated, eyes wide but unseeing
in the dark and streaming with tears. "Back," He sobbed,
wanting to crawl back out and run to his sister. He wanted Sarah, he
wanted her now, he wanted Dad and Mommy--

There were more than
two voices then, and they were all laughing raucously at his answer.
"He said back!"

"Whaaaaat?!"

"He
wants to go BACK!"

The bed rocked on its legs,
the noise dulled by the thickness of the rug, but Toby's hysteria was
deafening.

"Toby, You're-"
Sarah stopped to click the light switch by the door, frowning when it
didn't come on. An old, familiar shiver ran down between her
shoulderblades, gone before she could bother to pinpoint the source
and replaced by a little stab of guilt. His night light wasn't even
on. "Oh, honey, did the light blow out? Hold on."

Brat was probably scared
now. She moved into the room, looking for him. "Toby? You can
come out, it just needs a new bulb."

He didn't come out. Brows
dipping in irritation, Sarah got down on her knees and bent to check
under the bed. "To-by?" She sang faintly, straightening and
going to check the closet. "If you pop out and scare me, I'll
hit you..."

He wasn't there either; not behind the
hanging clothes or crouched in the shoe pile. He wasn't behind the
thick window curtains, or, less surprisingly, in the big toy box of
legos either. Sarah checked every nook and cranny of her brother's
room, doing her best to hold onto the safe feeling of annoyance and
keep the creeping eerie feeling of Something-Is-Wrong at bay. It was
just the dim light that was creeping her out, reminding her of a
night that was far in the past now. Blown bulbs always got her like
this. "Toby, this isn't funny,
I know you're in here!"

He couldn't have snuck
past her, the skinny twerp sounded like a miniature elephant when he
ran around. She had to be missing something... but then, maybe he did
slip by? He'd been pushing the rules lately, and she wouldn't put it
past him to try and just sneak downstairs and turn on the tv like he
owned the place.

Except he hadn't, and ten minutes later
Sarah was frantic from tearing up the house in her search- she'd even
gone out into the yard, knowing Toby was too scared of the dark to
have gone outside. On the verge of tears, she took the stairs three
at a time and ran back to her room. "Hoggle! Hoggle, help
me--"

She screached to a halt in front of the door,
staring in in disbelief at the mess that met her. Her backback was on
the floor, open and spewing it's shredded contents. Her bed was
tilted against the wall, the old treasure-chest like trunk that held
her more personal trinkets completely turned over, and it looked like
someone had taken a bat to her shelves. Stuffed animals and broken
porcelain pieces were scattered everywhere.

How did she not hear
this happen?

Where was Hoggle?

The vanity's drawers had
been pulled out, but it seemed otherwise untouched, and when Sarah
finally found her feet again she gravitated that way because of it;
dazedly leaning to pick up the old bent curtain rod she had switched
out last week and holding it to her chest. Robbers, there had to be,
or have been, robbers in the house. She should have called the police
immediately. What if they were still here? She might be attacked any
second...

But she didn't go running for a phone. Her heart was
going a mile a minute with the impossible certainty of what had
happened here.

Goblins. Magic. It couldn't
be, there was no reason at all for it to be, but she could all but
feel the buzz of leftover magic across her skin, as she'd felt it all
a long from the moment she called Hoggle and then went to Toby's
room. She could smell it.
Something had gone very wrong tonight, and the only real question was
why.

She felt like she was
dreaming, but awake, and it was a transition she knew. Her eyes still
locked on the mirror, she walked to the vanity and slowly raised a
hand to hover over the reflective surface. Here. Her eyes closed, and
she felt the trembling current of something against her palm.
They opened, and she knew what to do.

Taking a step back, she
brought up the curtain rod and swung as hard as she could, leaving a
wide spiderweb crack through the sturdy mirror. Not good enough. She
swung again and again, glass raining over the vanity, and instead of
a wood backing or wall, she found the dark tunnel she both had and
hadn't expected.

Her breath caught in her chest and she
didn't fight the anticipatory shiver that went through her body.
Excitement, fear, worry, a nameless thrill... Even if Toby weren't in
trouble, how could she turn this down? It would be a lie if she said
there wasn't a secret part of her that always wished for something
like this.

"Where'd they throw my
shoes?" Sarah muttered, breaking the tension. If she was going
to do this, she wasn't going to do it barefoot and in her pajamas.
Her gym clothes would do for running around and getting sweaty, she
found them lumped behind the door, and her sneakers were on opposite
sides of the room. She paused in a very brief flash of self
consciousness, wondering if maybe she should wear something else in
case Jareth-- but no. Priorities. This was no time to have a wardrobe
crisis.

"I hope," She
said, gingerly climbing onto the glass shrewn surface of her vanity
and peering into the dark a little more shrewdly this time, "really
hope, this doesn't open up into the Bog."

Author's
Note: Phew. Between coloring the cover pic I drew
for this fic, and figuring out how I wanted to get this chapter
rolling, I'm pooped. Picture isn't done yet, but I got most of the
naked parts finished first. How very like me.

Still not
entirely happy with this chapter, to be honest, but it's the best I
can do right now and I don't want to fuss so much that it turns into
a chore. Hope you enjoy it anyway!
- 4
- 5
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Good Character